Nicknames
by Amalthea-Shine
Summary: The block on Rey's memories has been removed, and she remembers a boy she used to know


This idea has been in my head for a while but I was never sure how to begin it. I figured I might as well go for it and work with what I got. I'm using both the movie and the novelization as cannon for this story.

Summary: The block on Rey's memories has been removed, and she remembers a boy she used to know.

Disclaimer: I do not own "Star Wars." I really wish I did though, because it is awesome!

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The silence was becoming unbearable. Rey's arm was getting tired from holding out the lightsaber, and Luke's sad, knowing look was starting to make her nervous. Finally, the old Jedi slowly made his way towards her. She still held out the lightsaber, waiting for him to take it. But he didn't. He simply put his hand on top of hers and lowered her arm until it rested at her side, still holding the lightsaber.

"It called to you," Luke spoke up now. "It's yours now."

"I don't understand," Rey said. Luke smiled at her.

"You will, Rey." A look of surprise, but also expectance, appeared on her face.

"You know my name?"

"I know more about you than you know about yourself," Luke said.

"Seems like everyone I meet knows more about me than I do," Rey said, her eyes going to the ground. "Leia, Maz Kanata." She paused, her mind going back to Starkiller Base, and a male voice whispering "It _is_ you." "Kylo Ren," she spat out.

"I would have been surprised if he didn't," Luke said. Rey looked up at him.

"I don't understand," she repeated.

"You will."

With that, Luke walked past her and gestured for her to follow him. She obeyed. Rey followed him into what appeared to be a sort of home; a small room, a pile of blankets that looked like a bed, a few personal possessions on a stone bench next to the wall. The middle of the room was cleared of anything, and Luke sat down and took up a meditative position, facing Rey.

"Please sit," he said.

Rey set down her staff and shoulder bag and sat down across from him, copying his position.

"What's the first thing you remember?" Luke asked. "What's the farthest back your memories go?"

Rey pretended to think about this for a moment, though she already knew the answer. It was a memory she had relived many times throughout the years despite her efforts to forget, a memory she had seen again in her vision when she first touched the lightsaber.

"I'm on Jakku," she finally said, the pain and sadness clear in her voice. "I'm watching a starship fly away, crying out 'No' and 'Come back' over and over again. Unkar Plutt is griping my arm, holding me back and telling me to be quiet." Her voice lowered. "I know my family is on that starship, but I can't remember their faces. I can't even recall who exactly dropped me there."

She fell silent. Luke simply looked at her, having patiently listened to her story. His eyes were sad though, more sad than they were when Rey first saw him. She didn't notice, as she had been looking at the ground since she started speaking. She glanced up, however, when she saw a metal hand reach out to her out of the corner of her eye. She flinched and leaned back, remembering another time when someone reached out a hand to her like that.

"I won't hurt you," Luke reassured her. "I merely want to examine your memories at that point and see if my assumptions are correct. Will you let me?"

Rey hesitated. The last time someone used the Force to look through her memories, it didn't go so well. But that was Kylo Ren. This was Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi. She could trust him. She nodded, and felt Luke enter her mind.

This wasn't like when Kylo Ren entered her mind though. He felt harsh, sharp like metal and cold like snow. Luke felt different, warm and soft and comforting, like a parent's embrace. Not that she knew what that felt like.

The feeling lasted for not even a minute before it left and Luke lowered his hand.

"Just as I suspected," he said. "There's a block on your memories, preventing you from remembering anything before Jakku. Whoever dropped you off there had the Force." This was news to Rey, and it shocked, surprised, and confused her.

"But who could it have been?" she asked. "And why would they put a block on my memories?"

"The only way to answer that question is to remove the block," Luke said, as if that were the most obvious answer.

"Can you do that?" Rey asked. She had mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, she wanted the block removed. She wanted to have her memories back, to remember who she was before Jakku, to have the answers to all the questions she had asked herself since she could remember. On the other hand, she was afraid to have it removed. She was afraid of what she might discover, afraid the answers she got weren't the ones she wanted or were even worse than whatever horrible things she had imagined. But she knew that she had to do this, otherwise she would keep wondering.

"I can," Luke said, answering her question. "It might take a while, and it might feel unpleasant."

"Just do it," Rey said. She wanted to get this over with, before she lost her nerve.

With a nod, Luke once again held out his hand next to her face. He closed his eyes in concentration. Rey closed hers as well. She felt Luke enter her mind once again and she relaxed, letting him work.

For a while, it seemed like nothing was happening, then, all of a sudden, Rey felt a weight that she had never noticed before lift away, and a million memories came flooding back to her. She gasped at the shock as they hit her all at once.

 _Rey, two years old, watched a man hold out a practice lightsaber, demonstrating a few moves for a group of attentive students, all with practice lightsabers. He finished the demonstration and then paired them up to practice with each other. He made sure that they all knew what they were doing before he turned and saw Rey watching him. It was Luke! He smiled at her, crouched down on the ground, and held his arms out for her. Rey ran to him._

" _Papa!" she cried. She reached Luke and threw her arms around him, feeling his arms wrap around her as he picked her up._

" _Spying again, Kira?" he asked with a smile and a laughing tone. Rey laughed and innocently shook her head. "Where's your mother?"_

 _As soon as the words left his mouth, a woman appeared. She had the same hair and eyes as Rey, and she smiled at the two of them._

" _I'm sorry, Luke," she said with a musical voice. "I thought she was right beside me."_

" _You know she likes to sneak off, Belle," Luke said to the woman. "She's too adventurous."_

" _That's just a nice way of saying she has too much of her father in her," the woman, Belle, replied with a slight mocking tone._

" _What's wrong with that?" Luke asked, and he looked at Rey. "There's nothing wrong with that, is there, Kira?"_

" _No," Rey said with a laugh and a shake of her head. Her parents laughed, and Belle walked up next to them._

" _I'm only joking," she said to Luke. "You know that's one of the many reasons I love you."_

" _I know," Luke said, "but I never get tired of hearing you say it."_

 _The couple kissed, ignoring Rey's "Eww!"_

* * *

 _Almost two years later, it was the day before Rey's fourth birthday. She waited by the landing pad, watching the sky for something in particular. After a while, she saw the_ Millennium Falcon _come out of the clouds and slowly get bigger. It landed in front of her, and she watched the ramp lower. A teenage boy with wild black hair, dressed in a Jedi uniform, ran down the ramp, looking around for a bit before he spotted her. He smiled big and started to run towards her._

" _Kiki!" he called out._

" _Benny!" she called back as she also ran towards him._

 _The two met and the boy picked her up and swung her around. They were both laughing. He finally set her down and knelt down in front of her._

" _Happy early birthday, Kiki!" he said, still smiling._

" _Ben!" a voice called from the ship. Turning to look, the two saw Han Solo and Leia Organa walk down the ramp. "I told you to wait," Han said to his son as he and his wife walked up to them._

" _I couldn't," Ben told him. "I haven't seen Kiki in so long."_

" _Ben," his mother said in a patient voice, "you've only been away for two weeks. You see each other every day when you're here."_

" _I know," Ben said to her._

" _So what'd you get me?" Rey asked her cousin. He always gave her the best gifts._

" _Kira," an exasperated voice said from behind her. She turned to see her parents walk up to the group. "You'll find out tomorrow," her mother said. "You can be patient for one more day, can't you?" Rey just smiled._

" _Well," Han said with a familiar look on his face, the one that said he had an idea that others, especially Leia, were not going to like. "We do have something to give to you tomorrow, but I suppose an early birthday present couldn't hurt."_

" _Han," Leia asked her husband with a suspicious tone and look, "what are you thinking?"_

 _Han just smiled at her before kneeling down to Rey's level._

" _How'd you like to take a spin in the_ Falcon _?" he asked her. "You and Ben can be my copilots. I've been teaching him the tricks."_

" _YES!" Rey and Ben shouted together before running back to the_ Falcon _and up the ramp, ignoring the conversation the adults were now having about this idea. Rey stopped to give Chewie a big hug before telling him what was happening. He laughed and wished them good luck before giving Ben some advice and exiting the_ Falcon _._

 _Rey and Ben hurried to the cockpit, where Ben sat down in the copilot seat and picked up Rey and set her on his lap. A few minutes later, Han appeared and sat in the pilot seat. Rey smiled and clapped her hands together as she watched her cousin and uncle prepare for take-off. This was the best birthday present ever!_

* * *

 _Two more years later, a terrified Rey watched from her bedroom window as a group of people cloaked in black, blending in with the darkness, attacked the temple, slaughtering her fellow students as they tried desperately to protect their home. She covered her ears to block out their screams as a red lightsaber ran through them._

 _Belle ran into the room, not saying a word before picking up her daughter and running out. Rey barely had time to grab her Rebel pilot doll that her father made for her just days ago. Belle rushed out of the temple and into the woods, away from the death and destruction. She kept running until she reached a cave, hidden by vines hanging over the entrance. She set Rey down, but still held her close as she caught her breath, trying to remain calm._

" _Where's Papa?" Rey asked her mother after a while. She didn't dare ask about what was going on at the temple, who those people were, and why they were killing everybody._

" _He'll join us soon," Belle answered, though her voice wavered, betraying her fear and uncertainty._

 _They passed the time in silence, the only sounds being the rain outside and their breathing. After a while, they heard something; an electric, buzzing sound. Rey clutched her doll to her, a bad feeling coming over her. When nothing happened, Belle started to get up. Rey grabbed her arm, not daring to speak a word but hoping her mother would get the message. Belle leaned down and whispered in her ear "I'll be back. I promise."_

 _With those words, Belle got up again and slowly walked out of the cave. A minute passed, Rey holding her breath. Just when she started to get up to go after her mother, she heard her scream. Rey froze. Another minute passed._

 _Then, the figure with the red lightsaber appeared outside the cave, looking around for a minute before glancing in the direction of the cave. It slashed at the vines with its lightsaber, exposing the cave and the frightened girl hiding inside. The figure entered the cave. Rey could only stare at it. The figure eventually turned off its lightsaber and clipped it to its belt. Kneeling down, it removed its helmet and Rey gasped._

" _Benny?"_

" _Hi, Kiki," the boy replied with a sad smile on his face._

 _Rey couldn't believe what she was seeing. Ben had disappeared a few months ago, and he had been acting odd for a while before that. He no longer played games with her and told jokes and laughed with her. He no longer helped her meditate and practice with her lightsaber. He no longer smiled at her. He didn't even call her "Kiki" anymore. Even now, Rey didn't have that good feeling she usually got whenever she was around her cousin. It was the same feeling she got when she saw those dark people killing the students, and she didn't like it._

" _Why are you doing this?" she asked her cousin, tears starting to fall from her eyes. "What happened to you?"_

" _I've seen the truth," Ben answered her. "I've seen the dark side of the Force, the power that it gives you. They've been keeping it from us, holding us back. But no longer."_

" _I don't understand," she said. This wasn't like Ben at all. He'd changed, and it scared her._

" _I don't expect you to," Ben said. He suddenly got a sad look on his face and glanced behind him. Turning back to her, he said, "I'm sorry, Kiki," before he waved a hand in front of her face and everything turned black._

* * *

 _When Rey woke up, she was on a starship. Looking around, she saw Ben in the pilot seat. A planet appeared in front of them though the window, growing bigger. Rey could only watch as they approached the planet and Ben landed the starship. He turned around and saw that she was awake._

" _Where are we?" Rey asked._

" _We're on Jakku," Ben answered. Rey frowned. She'd never heard of this planet before._

" _What are we doing here?" Rey asked. "What about the temple? Where are my parents?"_

 _Ben only looked at her sadly, and Rey could guess, at least, what had happened to her mother._

" _How could you!?" she screamed at him._

" _I'm sorry, Kiki," Ben said. He walked up to her and Rey ran, right out of the starship._

 _The heat hit her. The sun blinded her. She fell to the ground, not used to walking on sand. She looked around. All she could see was sand. The hot wind blew it all around, and she squinted to keep the sand out of her eyes. A fat, ugly man approached her and she backed away, right into Ben. Turning around, she had just enough time to see him kneel down in front of her. Not saying a word, he held up a hand in front of her face and closed his eyes. Everything went fuzzy._

* * *

 _When things cleared up, a man was holding her arm and pulling at her. Rey looked around and saw a starship lift off and fly away. She couldn't remember anything, but she knew that her family was on that ship. She started to pull away from the man._

" _No!" she screamed at the rapidly shrinking ship. "Come back!"_

" _Quiet, girl," a rough voice said and she looked at the man holding her arm before turning back to the ship._

" _No!"_

Rey opened her eyes with a jolt. She was not on Jakku. She was on an island, in a temple, with Luke Skywalker. With her father. Tears fell from her eyes as she looked at him, still sitting in front of her with the same look her gave her when he first saw her; a look of recognition, terrible sadness, and regret.

"Papa?" she said in a low voice.

"Hello Kira," Luke said in a choked voice tinged with sadness, as if he was trying not to cry.

Rey threw her arms around him and cried into his shoulder, barely registering that he had wrapped his arms around her and was holding her close. They stayed like that for a while, neither of them wanting to be the first to let go. After a few minutes, Rey leaned back to look into her father's face, building up the courage to ask the one question she knew the answer to but still needed to hear.

"Mother?"

Luke sadly shook his head and Rey knew the truth. Ben killed her. No, not Ben. Kylo Ren. He ceased to be Ben when he turned to the dark side. Rey shook thoughts of her cousin from her mind. She didn't want to think about him right now. She just wanted to cherish this reunion with her long-lost father.

* * *

Later that night, though, as Rey lied in her bed on the _Falcon_ , her thoughts returned to Ben. She slowly went through every memory she had of him, every memory she'd regained today, starting from when he first arrived at the temple to when he left her on Jakku to when she last saw him on Starkiller Base. Unable to resist, she whispered a single word into the night.

"Benny."

* * *

Far away, in the medical bay of a Star Destroyer, Kylo Ren woke up. He could feel it, the block on Rey's memories removed. She remembered everything. Several emotions flooded his heart, and a tear fell from his left eye, the one not covered by the bandages. He, too, whispered a single word into the empty air.

"Kiki."

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So what did you think? Good? Bad? Too many feels? Leave me a review. Here's some cyber-tissues if any of you cried.


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